1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic camera having a recording function, and particularly relates to an electronic camera which can suppress recording of an AF operation noise.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an electronic camera which electronically records a subject image by an image pickup device has been rapidly widespread. A main function of such an electronic camera is still image shooting, but an electronic camera capable of moving image shooting accompanied by recording and speech recording at the time of still image shooting has been also put into practical use.
In the above-described electronic camera, during the recording, driving noise (AF operation noise) of a motor and a drive mechanism which drive an AF lens echoes in a camera casing and is transmitted to a microphone, resulting in recording external speech and the AF operation noise simultaneously. Hence, the electronic camera with a recording function has a problem that the sound quality deteriorates at playback due to the AF operation noise.
In relation to the above, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-10123 discloses an electronic camera which, at moving image shooting accompanied by recording, performs a focusing operation only in accordance with a user's focusing instruction, and suppresses the AF operation noise by suppressing the number of times of AF operations at the sound recording.
However, according to the electronic camera in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-10123, the user has to instruct the focusing operation at moving image shooting accompanied by recording, and the operation therefor is very complicated. Further, in the electronic camera in the document, each focusing operation is the same irrespective of during recording or non-recording. Therefore, where the focusing operation is frequently performed, the AF operation noise substantially degrades the sound quality at the time of playback.
Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-10123, discloses a configuration in which a display regarding a focusing state (whether the out-of-focus amount is within an allowable range) is displayed on a monitor, thereby making it easier for the user to decide about the focusing operation. According to AF TTL contrast detection system in the document, however, the focusing state is determined in a hill-climbing operation, and therefore the operation of acquiring information on the focusing state is the same as the AF operation. Namely, for display of the focusing state as above, the frequent AF operation is needed, thereby making it difficult to improve the sound quality at the time of playback.